Sometimes a Security
Council vote can mean a victory for human rights no matter which side
wins. The recent vote on a resolution mildly condemning Israeli settlement
activity is one example. If the U.S. had voted for the resolution, or
even abstained and allowed others to pass it, it would have
strengthened the international opposition to the Israeli occupation,
and perhaps helped set the stage for greater UN and international
engagement in ending the Israeli occupation and challenging Israel’s
apartheid policies and other violations of human rights. It would have
been a great victory.

But instead, the U.S. vetoed the resolution—the vote was 14 to 1, with no abstentions. On this issue once again,
the U.S. stood absolutely isolated. And ironically, that was a victory
too, because of the unity of other countries. Britain, Russia, Brazil
and others spoke after the vote, expressing stronger than usual support
for the anti-settlement resolution, and referencing (Britain most
strongly) their recognition of a Palestinian state that may be declared
in September.

That recognition by itself is unlikely to achieve an end to the Israeli occupation; the PLO’s 1988 declaration of an independent state
quickly won close recognition from close to 100 governments and the
occupation intensified. But the recent moves toward greater
recognition—especially from a number of Latin American countries
who had not previously recognized Palestine—may foreshadow greater UN
involvement in holding Israel accountable for its violations.

The Middle East is in the throes of a new wave of democratic
revolutionary motion, and it is high time Palestinians were able to be
part of that wave.

The U.S. had been threatening the veto for weeks. But in the last
few days there had been rumors of a possible shift. A bribe was
offered: if the Palestinians would withdraw the resolution, the U.S.
would accept a “presidential statement” from the Council, a diplomatic
step-down from the power and enforceability of a resolution. The
Palestinian diplomats, backed by global support for the resolution and
facing massive popular discontent at home because of concessions
offered to Israel during peace negotiations, stood firm. Then there
was another rumor, that maybe the U.S. would abstain, allowing the
resolution to pass.

In the end, the Obama administration’s early threats proved accurate. The U.S. stood alone. Ambassador Susan Rice’s statement was astonishingly defensive—she went to great lengths to claim that the U.S. actually agrees with
the resolution, that no one has done more than the U.S. to support a
two-state solution, that the U.S. thinks settlement activity (not, we
should note, the continuing existence of longstanding settlements now
home to 500,000 Jewish settlers in the West Bank and occupied
East Jerusalem, only new settlement activity) violates Israel’s
international commitments and more. She tried to convince the world
that “opposition to the resolution should not be misunderstood” to mean
that the U.S. supports settlement activity—only that the Obama
administration “thinks it unwise” for the United Nations to try to stop
that settlement activity. She defined settlements as one of the “core
issues that divide Israelis and Palestinians,” not as a violation of
international law and a host of specific UN resolutions—therefore,
she claimed, the issue was just one of the UN being the wrong venue for this debate.

We’re really against settlements, she pleaded, we just want to end them our way. On our terms. In our peace talks. And we all know how well that’s gone so far.

In fact, the U.S. veto in the Security Council was consistent with a
long and sordid history. As of 2009, fully half of the vetoes ever cast
were to protect Israel from being held accountable in the UN for
violations of international law and human rights. Another third were
to protect racist regimes in southern Africa—South Africa and
pre-independence South-West Africa—from the same accountability. Taken together, fully five out of six, or more than 80 percent, of U.S. vetoes
have been cast to protect Washington’s allies accused of apartheid
practices.

The Middle East is in the throes of a new wave of democratic
revolutionary motion, and it is high time Palestinians were able to be
part of that wave. While the U.S.'s use of the veto remains part of a
sordid history, this time the veto may be different. It may actually
help set the stage for much greater international engagement in the
United Nations that, if combined with the mobilization for boycotts,
divestment, and sanctions as well as growing opposition to U.S.
military aid, could move once and for all to end the Israeli occupation
and apartheid.

Interested?

Here’s how both sides could gain by building on their common interest for peace and fairness.

14 women find their voice in this collection of essays.

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